Just what we need, more spin doctors

Westpac chief financial officer
Phil Coffey
probably expected to cop a rough time standing in for his absent boss,
Gail Kelly
, at the bank’s annual general meeting in Sydney yesterday.

But besides a few fiery shareholders, including one who said the bank was “on the precipice of disaster" and another who complained about a lack of slides to go with the presentation, Coffey and chairman
T
ed Evans
got out of it pretty well. But they got plenty of advice about the bank’s public relations strategy.

One shareholder said Westpac needed to do more to showcase the good things it did in the community and suggested some sort of advertising campaign (as if the banks don’t have enough ads already). Another was shocked about what he had been hearing on talkback radio recently, when callers had complained about the nasty banks. Again, a full PR offensive was recommended. Again, at last look we’re pretty sure the banks employ a PR flak or two already and have a reasonable marketing budget.